Mulligatawny Heaven

I've started a new hobby with a friend of mine who wants to start leaning how to cook better, healthier food for himself. We've begun getting together every so often and, while we catch up with each other, we try a new recipe together. It's socializing and cooking and eating...all of my favorite things! This time we tried mulligatawny soup which is a curry-flavoured soup with a lentil base. You can add chicken or shrimp if you'd like but we left it plain 'ol vegetarian. Here's what we used:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onions
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
2 cups (or one can) lentils
4 cups low-salt vegetable broth
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

First, take your onions and start them frying in the oil until translucent. Then add the garlic and start that going too. Then take each spice and add it one at a time to your onion/garlic mixture. Just wait a few minutes in between each addition. This will allow the spices to "bloom" and you'll layer the flavours while letting them build and intermingle with each other.

Then add your lentils and mix them into the mixture. Let them heat up with the spices and onions and garlic. Your kitchen will smell amazing! Then add in the stock and let the whole thing simmer 20 minutes. Then add the coconut milk and lemon juice. Here comes the fun part...then you blitz the whole thing with an hand-held blender or in batches in a regular blender.

And now you have soup! It's a hearty soup, even though it's blended smooth, and all those spices make it extremely aromatic and yummy. This should make enough for a couple meals and it can be frozen for lunches and future meals.

KISS (keep it simple stupid) Onion Soup

Problem: limited supplies, cold night, laziness. Solution: Onion soup!

All you need to do is chop up a bunch of onions. Careful this will cause tears...take off your glasses if you wear 'em, light a candle and bear through it. If none of this works, stick your head in the freezer. Seriously. I didn't believe it work work but it does. I hate that it works. But it does!

Then put the onion slices into a frying pan with a little butter, slat, pepper and whatever else you have on hand that you'd like in your soup. This time around, I threw in a dash of the beer I was drinking, some balsamic vinegar and a little cumin. You need to wilt the onions down a lot. This is called caramelizing your onions. It will seem impossible at first but then, after 15 minutes or so your big batch of onions will caramelize and wilt down into yumminess.
In a pot on the stove, simmer some stock, traditionally beef stock. Add the onions and simmer some more. That's your soup. Simple as can be. Not necessarily the best, fanciest or refined recipe but it works. If you want to French it up, add some bread and cheese on top. Broil for a couple seconds and enjoy. Seriously. It will be tasty. And careful not to get too close to anyone afterwards - it may be KISS soup but its still onion soup!

Chicken chili (slow cooker style)

I experiment with lots of foods but this recipe is a staple. I've made it (and enjoyed it) enough times that I don't need a recipe to read anymore. It's an easy, fool-proof meal that will satisfy.

You'll need:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
8 boneless skinless chicken thighs chopped into bite-sized chunks (or about the same amount chicken breast)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground coriander (or more if you like it, some hate coriander so leave it out if you must. Coriander is also called cilantro)
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin (or more...it's yummy!)
1 tsp chipotle chili powder (I use chipotle hot sauce)
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
1 can (19 oz/540 mL) white kidney beans, drained and rinsed (also works with 1 can chickpeas)
2 cans (each 4-1/2 oz/127 mL) chopped green chilies
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander (see coriander note above. Parsley works too)
2 tbsp lime juice (about one lime)
2 cups water

What to do:
In large skillet, heat half of the oil over medium-high heat; brown chicken all over. Don't miss this step because browning really helps the flavour. Transfer to slow cooker.

Drain any fat from pan; add remaining oil. Fry onion, garlic, coriander, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6 minutes. Scrape into slow cooker. Stir in beans and chilies; add water and stir through. Cover and cook on low for 5 or six hours.

In small bowl, whisk flour with 3 tbsp water; stir into slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 15 minutes or until thickened (may need to go on stove for this step. The thickening is aided by boiling.)

Stir in coriander (or parsley) and lime juice. Serve with bread for dipping and sour cream or thick yogurt. Add some dried chili flakes or more chipotle or other hot sauce if you want more zing

Non-recipe onion soup recipe

Every now and then I end up with large quantity of one item in our pantry. This week it was onions. So, I thought to make onion soup. Now, I don't have a recipe for this since I have just made it from instinct since as long as I can remember. I can recall my mother making this when we were kids and putting bread on top, and cheese, and broiling the soup in little French onion soup bowls which were only used for that purpose, and that purpose alone.

I can remember what went into that soup and, although I don't own any of those little bowls, I think my version tastes pretty good. Secret weapon: large-mouthed coffee cups which can be stuck under the broiler (if you choose to put bread and cheese on top...crusty bread and Swiss please!).

So my non-recipe recipe is as follows:
- Melt some butter and olive oil in a large pot. Butter (or margarine) for flavour and olive oil because it can stand more heat and keeps the butter from burning.
- Slice up a couple onions and put them down in the pot. The other night I used up everything I had left, which was about five medium onions. Less onions will make your soup less onion-y and more onions, well, you get the drift.
Time-saver tip: the food processor does an amazingly quick job of slicing onions. And no tears!
- Stir to coat them in the butter/oil and cover the pot and let the onions soften for about 5 mins.
- Add whatever seasoning you want: salt, pepper for sure, some basil or oregano, garlic...
- Then put in a bunch of beef broth. "A bunch" is about one of those resealable cartons sold next to the soups. You can add more or less broth, depending on the amount of onions you've got and how watery you want your soup. You can also add water to the broth if you want a less intense flavour. I got for low-sodium broth. You can also use chicken or veg. broth I guess but beef is the traditional ingredient.
- Simmer that for a while (see how non-recipe this recipe is?!) about 20 mins.
- To serve, put some soup in a bowl or mug (preferably one that's oven-proof).
- Added bonus: top with bread and cheese and put under broiler for 2-3 mins. until cheese is melted and slightly browned.
Enjoy!